Six Food Elimination Diet

I was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis 2 years ago. I spent 17 days in the hospital and received high dose oral steroid treatment to treat it. It went away; however, the problem has resurfaced. My doctor has recommended I start a six food elimination diet. My question is: is there anybody doing this diet and how are you avoiding these foods? They seem to be in everything at the store. MY SFED consists of egg, milk, seafood/shellfish, tree nuts/peanuts, soy, and wheat.

[CalGal]

Feelingbad, you're going to have to do a lot of your own cooking, but you should be able to slowly avoid all the foods that you're having a problem with. It's difficult, but doable. It may be the only way you're going to be able to feel well in the future, since you can't and shouldn't rely on steroids to try to knock the problem down. Even when it's 'beaten back,' it's still going to be there since you're evidently reacting to specific food triggers.

Try googling american partnership for eosinophilic disorders. The site may give you more information on the problem.

[mifegr]

Start shopping at The Whole Foods Market.  They have lots of foods that you can eat that do not have these items in them.  My diet is even more strict that this one and I have no problem finding foods to eat every day.  You just have to get used to eating healthy.  Steel cut oats for breakfast, sandwiches made on wheat-free bread for lunch, and stir-fried vegetables over brown rice for dinner.  Fresh fruit for dessert.  Get it?  

[FurballsMom]

I'm on an even stricter diet.  Doing your own cooking really is the answer.  Whole Foods is a good store to try.  Shop in the bulk foods section, because their bulk foods section doesn't cost any more than other stores with bulk foods costs.  I find that the very foods that you're trying to avoid are so much easier to avoid when cooking my own foods.  Then, I don't have the frustration of reading all those labels and meeting up with disappointment, finding out that various foods have soy or eggs or milk in them, even when they're gluten-free.  

Trader Joe's does have a couple of rice products that are worth going shopping for.  They have some rice tortillas that only have three ingredients.  They have their own brand of rice cakes, and they have a couple of shapes of rice pasta.  I love spraying the rice tortillas with olive oil (I use one of those pump sprayers that one fills with olive oil, then pumps the air into mechanically.), then I lightly salt them and place them into the oven on a baking sheet and baking them until they're crisp, like crackers.  With the loads of food sensitivities, I find it's difficult to find rice crackers that don't have some ingredient or another that I'm sensitive to.  So, I make crackers out of the tortillas from Trader Joe's.  I have used them as sandwich wraps, but I find that even when I cook them, like one would corn tortillas that they still break, like the ones made from corn do.  So, I prefer the tortillas made into crackers.  For me, it's worth it when I'm between paydays and I'm out of rice cakes.